Lasz said:
As far as I understand (from what I’ve read on the forum), someone paid (I assume quite a fair amount of money, since scanning prints isn’t cheap) to have that print scanned. And then someone else gave those scans away, without that person’s (the guy who had it scanned) permission.That’s not proper conduct. legal or not.
But how is that a problem unless the person who paid the money was expecting to make that money back by (very illegally) selling his scans of his print? In what world was this person going to get that money back? Unless said person was aiming to be reimbursed by Disney for providing assistance with some theoretical future release, the whole “but he/she spent money!” argument makes no sense to me.
Imagine you took years to find that print, and paid a small fortune for it.
Someone comes along and asks to scan that print for preservation, you understandably are worried, what if the print gets lost, damaged, confiscated? What if after the print is scanned, they trace it back to you and prosecute you and confiscate your library of prints worth 10s or even 100s of thousands of dollars?
You might be old enough to remember when the FBI raided the Hollywood home of Roddy McDowall and seized the actor’s large collection of films, you are quite nervous about possible repercussions.
So the restorationist courts you for months, and offers solid assurances that the scan done will not be released, that there would be no way to trace it back to them, that it is part of a bigger mission to get the originals restored fully. That they will pay the extremely expensive costs to get it all done. You relucatantly agree, hoping it won’t come back to bite you on the arse.
Now, if you see images from your print suddenly appear online, from a group giving interviews and releasing torrents of movies, and saying they are going to use the scan of your print and put it out there, you are going to be pissed and extremely worried.
Also, on the flipside, if you paid tens of thousands of dollars to scan something, for your own use that you made assurances would never be used for anything else, and someone effectively took that time and money you spent making it happen, and just used it for their own thing, that could potentially derail your own work and put the guy that trusted you in the shit, well, I reckon most people would also be pretty pissed in that situation.